More than 7,000 people were able to enjoy the concerts and parallel activities organized by the festival FIMUCITÉ.
The Tenerife International Film Music Festival (FIMUCITÉ), made possible thanks to the support and sponsorship of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Canary Islands Government, Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, Arona City Council and La Laguna City Council, closed its eleventh edition to the applause of more than 7,000 concert goers and the participation of hundreds of people in its parallel activities. The festival organisers are now focusing their energy on preparing next year’s twelfth edition, which will be held from 21 - 29 September 2018.
This year’s FIMUCITÉ has marked a step forward in efforts to bring the work of female composers and conductors into the spotlight: in 2016, Emmy-winning composer Lolita Ritmanis became the first woman to conduct a concert in FIMUCITÉ, after which posthumous homage was paid to Shirley Walker, who made a name for herself in Hollywood’s film music industry, and this year the festival has had the privilege of working with Eímear Noone. The award-winning Irish composer and conductor took the stage with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife for the concert ‘Sword & Sorcery: Symphonic Chronicles of a Legendary Era’, which was celebrated in the Auditorio de Tenerife “Adán Martín”. Her striking stage presence thrilled fans of the fantasy subgenre during performances of iconic pieces such as ‘Highlander, ‘Willow’ and ‘Conan the Barbarian’.
The festival, which is directed by renown Tenerife composer and conductor Diego Navarro, solidified its commitment to the islands’ pool of young musicians thanks to collaborative agreements with the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands and the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife that has given these musicians a chance to demonstrate their skills to the public in the emblematic venue of Teatro Guimerá. This project took the shape of two concerts, the first dedicated to music composed especially for Spanish films entitled ‘Soundtracks of Spain’, and the second with a focus on iconic warriors entitled ‘Warriors from the Silver Screen’. Both concerts were produced in collaboration with Musimagen (Association of Spanish Composers for the Audiovisual) and the prestigious record label, Tadlow Music. Praises were bestowed on this initiative by guest conductors José H. Toledo, Ramón García i Soler and José A. Cubas, as well as the music producer James Fitzpatrick, composer Marcin Przybyłowicz and the Krakow FMF producer, Agata Grabowiecka.
Other big names from the audiovisual music world also participated in FIMUCITÉ XI, including the composer Trevor Jones, who was presented with the FIMUCITÉ-Antón García Abril Award in honour of his professional achievements. He conducted the OST and delighted concertgoers with the score for the ‘Merlin’ miniseries, after which he received a standing ovation.
The lineup of guests also included the Italian composer Fabio Frizzi, star of the first concert scheduled in the festival’s programme. The event consisted of a “live-to-picture” performance for the feature film ‘The Beyond’, during which the composer Fabio Frizzi performed his scores together with his band and the Tenerife Film Choir whilst the film by cult Italian director Lucio Fulci was screened. Antonella Fulci, daughter of the Italian director, visited the island to pay homage to the filmmaker. This tribute was organised by FIMUCITÉ together with Filmoteca Canaria.
Richard Bellis (television miniseries 'IT'), Atli Örvarsson (‘Season of the Witch’), Daniel Pemberton (‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’), Craig Stuart Garfinkle ('Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2') and Marcin Przybyłowicz ('The Witcher 3') complete the list of guest conductors who were invited to the 11th edition of the festival. The participation of such internationally renowned figures has served to spread word of the FIMUCITÉ festival at a national and international level via social media as well as the mainstream media.
The Closing Gala, which was dedicated to music from film and television adaptations of literary works by Stephen King, proved to be the icing on the cake of the 11th edition of FIMUCITÉ. This original concert, conducted by Diego Navarro contained 16 world premieres, amongst which were 'The Shawshank Redemption' (Thomas Newman), 'IT' (Benjamin Wallfisch), 'Carrie' (Pino Donaggio), and 'Thinner' by Daniel Licht. Posthumous homage was paid to Licht during the event. Music was performed by: the OST; the Children’s Choir of the Conservatory of Santa Cruz de Tenerife; and the soloists Cristina Ramos (winner of ‘Spain’s Got Talent 2016’) and Fran León (who has participated in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Evita’).
More than 400 musicians have participated in the festival on different stages during this year’s concert programming.
In the words of the creator of FIMUCITÉ, Diego Navarro, “I could not be happier. This year we have offered more concerts than ever before, 7 in total, all of which have received the praise of the public and critics alike. This year we wanted to emphasise the importance of education via two large projects involving the FIMUCITÉ Youth Orchestra and the Symphonic Band, which is comprised of students from the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands and the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. These future musicians have demonstrated that they possess a significant amount of talent by performing programs worthy of professional orchestras. As the director of this festival, I am over the moon and can say with confidence that there is a huge pool of talent and preparation in this area of the country. I am also extremely happy with the variety seen in this year’s concert programming and hope that next year’s FIMUCITÉ edition proves just as magical and surprising for our audiences whilst becoming a global benchmark for film music.”.
The second edition of the FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy (Fimucité Academy for Audiovisual Composers) proved even more successful this year, with more than 40 applications for the training activities held in the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the series of master classes delivered by award-winning artists and professional of outstanding international prestige.
Additionally, there was also the fifth official FIMUCINEMA competition, which ran from 23rd – 28th September that offered free entry to 5 feature films, 5 documentaries and 20 short films. The Alex North Award for “Best Original Score” was awarded to Amano Manish for the feature film ‘Rebellious Flower’. In the remaining categories, the award-winners were: Mina Petric for ‘The Last Ice Hunters’ (Best Original Score for a Documentary), Nami Melumad for ‘Luminaries’ (Best Original Score for a Short Film) and Josué Vergara for ‘Sonríe’ (Best Original Song).
Once again, the festival would like to thank the support of its public and private sponsors and collaborators. In particular, we would like to highlight the invaluable support received from the media, with special mention going to Radiotelevisión Española and Grupo de Comunicación El Día. The public radio and television corporation has provided an immense amount of coverage for the festival through its news reports and special programming dedicated to FIMUCITÉ. Furthermore, it was responsible for recording the symphonic concerts that will soon be broadcast at a regional, national and international level.